Healthy Divorce - For Parents and Children

Healthy divorce? Sounds crazy! But according to marriage and family therapists Craig Everett and Sandra Volgy Everett it is possible for both parents and children to maintain emotional stability and a sense of security, find renewal, and ultimately flourish when emerging from a divorce - if the process has been conducted as a healthy divorce. The authors have devoted their careers to counseling divorcing families. In this encouraging book, they outline the fourteen stages of divorce and offer families practical advice and solutions for negotiating one of life's most difficult events. With sensitivity and sensibility they explain how to recognize the different stages of the divorce; what to expect during each phase; and how to deal with the predictable patterns of the divorce process. Healthy Divorce explores ways of confronting such tough issues as how to tell your children you're getting a divorce, how to plan a separation, and how to cope with your feelings of anger, grief, and abandonment. The authors offer practical advice on using mediation as an alternative to the adversarial court battle; co-parenting to maintain stability for the children after the divorce; and organizing and structuring a happy blended family. Filled with helpful checklists and numerous examples, this book offers a detailed plan for surviving the emotional difficulties that are an inevitable part of every divorce. And the authors demonstrate that by working through this process, a family can create a healthy divorce.